What is the true measure of success?

Today we have been encultured to believe that money is the measure of success by which all men can be measured. Any “success” story is supplied with a monetary value – after $21,000 of surgery… He quit his job and started a company worth over $100 million… Sometimes, even the hero of a story is such because he gave back $10,000 (the grandma’s entire life savings.) Money is fleeting. Everyone has the same amount of money when they are dead. Looking at the example of inflation in Russia or in Germany during the Weimar Republic, we can see what can happen to the “value” of money with high inflation. By this measure, Mother Theresa was not a success. Of course, Bill Gates is success. Some believe that the number of friends one has is the measure of success. They turn life into a popularity contest. They drop names; the more famous the names, the more successful they are. Unfortunately, the word “friend” in English has come to mean no more than passing acquaintance. I met him one time in 1986, and I may say that he’s a friend of mine. How many of those friends would be there to help me out if I got into real trouble? Would they be willing to house me for a couple of days or weeks? Would they be willing to fly out at a moment’s notice? Would they go into debt for their friends? Some would say that closeness to God is the measure of success. The closer you are to God, the more successful you are. Yet how many truly know what closeness to God is? The scandals that have rocked the church have not just happened in the ‘80s. They happened in Chaucer’s time, and even Jesus had to throw the money changers(?) out of his church. The Crusades are not altogether pleasant history nor is the Inquisition. If cleanliness is next to Godliness, can I shower five times a day and be a success? I must confess that there seems to be something of success in the broader category of spirituality. Who would claim that a true Buddhist is any less successful than a true Christian? In this category, Mother Theresa is success. Is the “man of principle” a success? Someone who is true to his or her principles even if everyone else thinks that they are the wrong principles, are they a success? This is almost the same category as that of spirituality excepting that Galileo would be considered more successful in the spirituality category and would be a failure in this one. Is the person who gives him or herself to charity a success? And if they do it to be considered a success, are they any less successful? If you are true to yourself, are you a success? Or is success a valueless value? Is success what society says it is and nothing more? Andif it is so, is it worth being successful? Or are we better off doing what good we can and telling everyone who shakes their head at the “waste of potential” that we are doing what we can, not for ourselves but for someone else? If we live our lives to the best of our ability, and we can sleep at night knowing we are making the best decisions that we can at the time they have to be made, then we cannot help but be successful.